My tale of woe....

Ok...back in the day SL use to run like crap....that was also when I had a crappy computer with crappy graphics...

So then one day I spent like, a ton of money to have a computer built JUST to use SL and photoshop...it ran AWESOME and I never thought I could love SL more...

And then these updates started rollin in...one after another...and as of late....SL runs EXACTLY as it did a couple of years ago...if not worst.....I'm freezing every 3 seconds...the lag is torturous..I can't do ANYTHING if there are more then 75,000 people online at the same time....it's SOOOOO frustrating LL!!!

For every one of my problems, I hear others speaking of their own frustrations with the grid...I have done ALL that I'm told to do...cleared my cache countless times...updated all my drivers *(most don't even need updates at all so it's NOT that)*...ran all the virus checkers I could...nothing has helped....

So I guess my question is this....with all this progress, what exactly is being done to handle the traffic of SL and help run things smoothly...cuz right now..it ain't happenin'...Or am I going to have to update my computer's insides every time LL decides to "up their game" with these updated viewers? Why is it my 1500$ computer can't play THIS online game....it's built to specs.....

*sigh*


I do love SL..and for all it's faults I won't ever leave unless RL demands it...but it's becoming harder and harder to enjoy it.....So what's the dealio?

The End

hehe

First, make sure you don't have some piece of defective hardware. Like a flaky cable modem, router or something like that. Also, if you have wireless, make sure no one is mooching off it and eating up your bandwidth.

Second, what hardware are you using?

oooo ya know..the bandwidth things may be an issue...got 3 comps working on the same router...but it wasn't like this before the last update....the one that was having all those skin issues...it wasn't rockin', but not near this bad....just a progressive down slide I guess...I was able to avoid it all together then it was forced...now it's just ARGH!!! It's like this last update was IT....now I, along with countless other residents, am being dropped in Adult sims because the rest of the grid has poofed....

So even if I have some issues on my end..SL's not doing much to make things better..

As far as the hardware...hmm....my pops built this whole thing to what I'm now guessing are the older specs for the game...Nvidia 8600 GForce....and all that's needed to run that card...sufficient RAM and all that....

For the most part, I'm computer illiterate...but I do know how maintain one...and nothing I do is helping the SL issues....Photoshop and all that is just peachy. I don't have many programs on here competing with each other and SL is the only online "game" I play. After accidentally running one computer into the ground...I've learned what NOT to do...but it's not doing a bit of good...

*edit*

I should add I'm not one of those people that blames LL for EVERYTHING wrong in my SLife....it took a long time before I got irked enough to voice it in the forums...so I'm not bitchin' just to bitch..heh...I adore the idea of SL....just the delivery fall's short

Do you have the same problems on empty regions? It might be the sim, not your PC...

Yeah..it's everywhere....

I'm one of those SLotographers...so I'm all over the place...and lately..without fail...no matter what the sim...I'm freezing up to no end....MUCH worst with more then 60,000 on at a time..*pouts*

If concurrency is what's causing the problem, then it's got nothing to do with your computer. Usage strain on the network will slow the whole system down. There's nothing you can do about that.

That said, concurrency tends to be well above 60,000 almost all the time these days, and most of us aren't having the problems you are. So chances are it IS something with your computer, and not with the system, and that the concurrency thing is just a coincidence. Is it possible you've been putting two and two together in your head, where no correlation actually exists? Have you perhaps just been checking the concurrency numbers when you've been having problems, and ignoring it when you haven't?

My guess is you're having graphics card problems. The 8600 is only a midrange card, and its series is currently 2 generations out of date. It can run SL pretty well, though, as long as your drivers are in good shape, and you don't go nuts on settings. What driver version are you using? If you upgraded it recently, did you make sure to clean out all traces of the previous driver first? It's crucial that you do that. And did you download it straight from nVidia, rather than letting Windows Update make a mess of it? Don't ever, ever, ever let Windows Update touch your drivers. It has no idea what to do with them. Always go straight to the manufacturer for all drivers.

Note, nVidia introduced some fairly major architectural changes with the 180 series drivers. You might want to try using 179.xx or older, if you're having trouble with 180.xx or newer. And vice versa. Try the latest driver if you're currently using anything from the the 170's or 160's.

What about your network card drivers? How new are they? Chipset/motherboard drivers? Soundcard drivers? Other devices? A bad driver anywhere on the system can lead to unpredictable results in all manner of programs, especially one so resource intensive as SL. It might seem counter-intuitive that, say, a bad audio driver can lead to a perceived graphical slowdown, but it can.

How's your hard drive health? Do you defrag at least once a week? Do you have at least 20% free space? Is your SL cache on the same physical drive as your OS? If so, move it to a different drive, if you've got one. SL can tear up a hard drive in mere hours, the way it constantly writes and rewrites files.

How certain are you that your system is completely free of spyware, viruses, and other malware? Have you done a full system scan with AdAware and Spybot, in addition to whatever antivirus program you're using? And do all three have the latest updates applied?

Have you tried the "what should be painfully obvious but is often overlooked" solution, which is to reset your modem and router?

That's about all I can think of for now. If it's not one of those things, then I'm stumped for the time being.

Well..I didn't do the cleaning traces of the previous drivers thing....so that shall be my next step I also only get the driver updates from the NVidia site. Just updated it last Monday...but the issues were happening before that and didn't ease with updating it.

I have 3 virus programs on here, run each weekly...but remember to exit while playing SL knowing those tend to slow everything down...as well as my messenger *(which I never use anyway and can't seem to take the program off my system)* Any pop up blockers and such that constantly run even when not in use..

Now...if the 8600 card is kind of out of date..I would want to fix that..I only just got it 5 months ago....so hard to believe it's out of date already...*sigh* But I shall definitely look into that..

I've reset the router and modem numerous times...got 59% left on my hard drive Defrag on a weekly basis...

Now..what I'm not familiar with is your mention of the SL cache location....Can't get in world at all at the moment, but I'm thinking it said it was My Documents/Second Life or something along those lines...will be more specific when I can see it again....where would you suggest routing it???

Thank you for all of your suggestions....thinkin' I'm close to a solution by the minute^^ *hugs*